Let me start by saying that I feel guilty even thinking about the SAT and ACT at a time like this.  It is March 16, 2020 and things are starting to get bad with the Coronavirus:  schools are closing, the March SAT was just cancelled locally, and the stock market just lost about 12% of it’s value in a single day.  I have plenty of thoughts about the necessity of social distancing and I could write a whole post about what I think we need to do as a society and what changes we need to make to be better prepared in the future.  But the recent cancellation of the March SAT in many places around the country and the news that now ACT, Inc. and College Board have cancelled the April ACT and May SAT, respectively, have really devastated a lot of kids (for the latest on test cancellations, visit College Board’s SAT page and the ACT homepage).  It may seem trivial to adults, but to high school kids who prepared their tails off for these tests, it’s a very big deal.  So I thought it might make sense to offer some perspective on how the Coronavirus is likely to affect the SAT and ACT in the near-term and long-term.  What follows are some suggestions and predictions for how things move forward with the SAT and ACT, but time may prove me wrong (and if that is the case, I’ll probably remove this post!!!).

The Move to Eliminate the SAT and ACT

So I think the most obvious consequence of the current situation is that it will bolster the argument that schools should just abandon their use of SAT and ACT scores.  If the SAT and ACT cannot even be administered for a while, there will be many kids who won’t have as many opportunities to take the tests, and that will certainly help support the claim that schools should not be using the scores, at least for the upcoming admission cycle.   I suppose this will depend on when kids can start taking the SAT and ACT again, but I don’t think schools will drop the requirements completely.  If applicants for the upcoming admission cycle are really affected by the coronavirus and have really limited testing opportunities, then I think you will see schools declare either that for this cycle scores will weigh in less in admissions decisions or that submission of scores will be optional.  If the latter happens, I think you will probably see some schools stick with that policy moving forward and become “Test Optional” forever.  

But I don’t think that will mean that the SAT and ACT will go away.  First of all, ACT Inc. and College Board are just too big and powerful to go away.  I don’t see that happening anytime soon.  I also think schools really value the SAT and ACT.  It’s only part of the admission picture and one could argue that it carries too much weight, but it is a universal way for colleges to compare students from different backgrounds, and most schools will not be willing to completely do away with the tests unless some alternative exists.  And if you have read enough of this website, you’ll understand that the SAT and ACT really go beyond measuring one’s ability to just learn information and instead get at a person’s ability to reason and think critically and problem solve, and since these skills are so integral to success in college, it’s unlikely that schools will be willing to say goodbye to the SAT and ACT.

Additional Testing Opportunities for the SAT and ACT

It seems possible, perhaps even likely, that both ACT, Inc. and College Board will add additional tests if multiple tests get cancelled.  This is a difficult prediction to make because it may be that there are logistical reasons why this cannot happen, but make-up exams have been given in the past for a variety of reasons (I have had students take them), so it seems likely to me that the companies will go out of their way to provide more testing opportunities.  I could see ACT, Inc. adding a test for November and College Board adding one for September.  Or maybe additional testing over the summer?  

SAT and ACT Computer-Based Testing?

The ACT is already moving to computer-based testing, but I don’t think this will really be affected by Coronavirus.  Perhaps in the future there will be a way to administer these tests from home, and I am pretty sure that the makers of either the GMAT or the GRE or both have already considered this possibility, but in the near future that is probably not going to happen (although eventually I bet it will).  

Standardized Testing in the Age of Coronavirus

Obviously if schools stay closed for the next 6 months and the entire country is on lockdown, there will probably not be any standardized testing.  But assuming we even sort of get back to normal (maybe schools reopen but with some measures or restrictions in place to limit the spread of the virus) the tests will likely resume.  Even if schools put in place some kind of online learning platform, I could see a scenario in which schools are still closed or maybe open in some modified capacity, but the SAT and ACT are still given.  I think there is much greater risk of transmission on a normal school day then there is during the administration of the SAT or ACT.  It would really not be that hard to have students line up with some space between them as they are entering the building and then place them spaced very far apart in large rooms like the gymnasium or in smaller rooms in fewer numbers.   Really this is already sort of done anyway – you obviously don’t want test takers too close together for fear of cheating, so instead of having them spaced 4 or 5 feet apart you could have them spaced 10 feet apart.

I am sure some readers will balk at the idea of convening students in large numbers just to take the SAT or ACT, but it’s important to remember that many of these kids have prepared A LOT for these tests and it’s really not fair for them to not have an opportunity to take the tests and move forward.  I know because I have tutored many of them and most of them are devastated that they could not take the March SAT.  So while I am definitely in favor of social distancing and would definitely NOT take any risks at the moment, if things change in the next couple of months such that we as a society are starting to get back to normal and the tests could be administered with minimal or negligible risk of transmission, then it is really only fair to the cohort of students that have prepared so hard for the exams that they have an opportunity to take the tests, get the scores they want, and move on!

More and more of my tutoring these days takes place online, and I often get questions from parents and students alike as to the effectiveness of online SAT and ACT tutoring. So I thought it might be helpful for me to opine on the topic to help preemptively answer people’s questions.

First, let me start by saying that I have been doing online SAT tutoring for nearly a decade (my online ACT tutoring has been a little more recent, but even there I have been doing it for many years).  Before trying it I was skeptical of the enterprise and really didn’t think it could be as effective as in-person tutoring.  But there are ways to do it exceptionally well and there are ways to do it that are not very effective (I have seen some rather shocking examples of that from other tutors and test prep companies).  Actually even some of the platforms that one can use are better than others, so even that matters (for example, I don’t think Skype is the best platform for online SAT or ACT tutoring).  So if you are going to commit to online tutoring, you should be aware of what tends to make it go well and what does not.

I don’t want to give away all of my trade secrets, but the first essential thing is obviously that the tutor and student need to be able to see each other at all times.  I know of expensive tutors who will do online tutoring via phone or in a manner that does not allow the student to see the tutor. I honestly can’t believe that anyone would do this (I can, however, believe that parents and students who don’t know any better would go along with it), but I know of many cases where a student was subjected to this.

Additionally, in my opinion, there really needs to be a shared whiteboard that the tutor is writing on (not typing on but writing on).   I know of tutors who will just have a student look down at a page or book and answer questions there instead of loading the content into the shared whiteboard so that both tutor and student can see the questions on the screen together. It’s enormously useful to be able to make eye contact with the student while he or she is looking at and thinking about a question.  In a way, this is one hidden advantage to online tutoring – with in person tutoring you are generally not looking face to face with a student when they are looking at and thinking about a question, but with online tutoring (when it is done right) you are.  

And the ability to mark up the questions or passage is also essential.  This is another advantage to online SAT/ACT tutoring.   When you are sitting with a student, it’s a little uncomfortable to have to lean over a shared page or book and mark things up, but on the screen you don’t have that problem.  And although I don’t usually have my students marking up the screen as well (they usually do their workings on paper), I have had students use a tablet and write on the screen as well, so we both get to see each other’s workings. 

This actually leads to one more hidden benefit.  Some people just find it much more comfortable to have some on the other side of the screen as opposed to right next to them.  As the tutor, I don’t personally find it uncomfortable, but there is something a little unnatural and intrusive about sitting almost on top of someone and watching as they work out a problem.  Some kids seem not to even notice, but others are clearly self-conscious and distracted by it, so online tutoring creates a little separation that some people clearly find more comfortable.

There are of course down sides to online SAT and ACT tutoring.  Perhaps the most obvious, though not the most important, is that the tutor cannot see what the student is writing (unless the student elects to use a tablet and write on the screen).  The truth is that this is really a minor impediment.  For Verbal questions it is really not much of an impediment at all.  There is very little writing that takes place on Verbal questions, and anyway the job of a tutor is to get at WHY a person is doing what they are doing, and this really comes from probing the student as to the logic of their decisions.  On Math, it is definitely more of an issue, but if you are dealing with a very experienced tutor who not only knows the questions very well but also knows the typical paths that students take, it is very easy to anticipate what a person is doing even when they are not writing on the screen.   And I usually write what the student has done (once they verbalize it) onto the screen so that we can look at it together.  Again, it is not ideal, but the truth is that even when you are tutoring someone in person, it is often difficult to see what they are writing until they are finished because their hand often covers their workings and you don’t want to be leaning over them watching them do what they do!

In my experience, the main issue with SAT and ACT tutoring online is the attention and focus on the student.  This is really the main variable that determines whether or not it will work well. When you are dealing with a student who just doesn’t care and whose ability to focus is really limited, it is very difficult to conduct an online session, and I have occasionally had to stop working with a student online because he or she just wasn’t focused enough and it was clear that the sessions were not as productive as they should be. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it can be difficult to hold the attention of a 16 year old, even in an in-person session, but when you do the tutoring online, it gets that much more difficult. There are just too many potential distractions and this can really just make the tutoring virtually impossible to do effectively.  That said, I have only had that happen in a handful of cases…perhaps I am lucky to often be approached by the parents of fairly motivated and focused kids, but my experience has been that most kids really want to do well on the SAT and ACT and understand that tutoring is very expensive and that they should try to get as much out of it as they possibly can.

The truth is that online tutoring enables me to work with students all over the world, so it clearly has its benefits.  I have had the opportunity to tutor people in places as far flung as New Zealand, Russia, the UAE, and Panama to name just a few, and obviously I would never have been able to reach those students without the ability to see them online.  

Now obviously if I am tutoring someone who lives down the street, it probably makes sense to meet them in person.  But what online tutoring does is allow tutors, and by extension students, to be completely free of their geographic constraints.  So if you have a fantastic tutor who lives down the street, well then great.  But if you have a choice between a mediocre or even decent tutor who is local and a great tutor who you could meet online, there is really no question that you would be better off with the online tutor.   

If you do choose to hire a tutor for online SAT or ACT tutoring, you obviously want to do your due diligence to make sure the person is an excellent tutor and that he or she conducts the online meetings in a way that makes them optimally effective (and again, those two do not necessarily go together…I know of several very respectable tutors who conduct online meetings in an embarrassingly ineffective way). But if you feel confident that the tutor is good and knows how to navigate the online aspect of tutoring (and especially if the tutor comes referred by someone who used them online) then you might be better off with an SAT or ACT tutor who can only meet online than one who you can see in person.

Well, well, well. If the folks at college board intended to make their test (the SAT) more competitive with the ACT (which had recently overtaken the SAT as the most popular college admissions test), boy did they misfire. Never in my more than 10 years of tutoring for these tests have I done so much ACT tutoring! Of course that may change over time as people come back to the SAT, but if I used to do 80% SAT and 20% ACT tutoring, those percentages are now reversed. And this is New York, where the SAT has long reigned supreme!

In the coming months I will be posting more about the new SAT as I myself become more acquainted with it. But I couldn’t help but comment on the difference I have seen in local demand for the ACT. And it is not without good reason…

First of all, College Board has not released that much practice material for the new test, so even if one were inclined to prepare for the SAT, one would not have a whole lot to work with. Aside from the 4 practice tests they released, there is not much else that one can use. I have not gone through that much of the material from Khan Academy (aside from the tests), but I suspect that the additional material that is being housed on the Khan site is not being written by ETS (the company that produces the SAT). Conversely there is a wealth on material available for the ACT, including many, many old previously administered tests that make it very easy to prepare for the ACT.

Another thing is that the new SAT is now a lot like the ACT (which is itself an absolute shame in my opinion…I am really, really going to miss the old SAT). When the SAT was very different from the ACT it gave people a reason to opt for that test instead of the ACT. In the past I really viewed the SAT as a superior test. But now that the SAT is so unabashedly mimicking the ACT (and I mean really mimicking it), why would one take this new imposter test when the real thing (the ACT) has been running relatively unchanged for many, many years. I am glossing over key differences between the tests that will, in the future, undoubtedly influence people’s decision, but the general impression that most people seem to have at the moment is that the SAT is now just a copy of the ACT. Oh, how far you have fallen SAT!

One interesting thing to just throw in here. PSAT scores were recently released and I have to say that an interesting thing has happened. Many people seem to have done really well on the PSAT – so well that they are now considering taking the SAT as well. At first I thought I was crazy to think that the PSAT scores could have been artificially inflated a little to encourage people to take the SAT. I still think that idea seems a little far-fetched, but I recently came across something on Erica Meltzer’s blog (author of The Critical Reader and The Ultimate Grammar Guide to the SAT) in which she pointed to what appears to be some tinkering with the percentiles in order to give the impression that people are in a higher percentile than they really should be. I don’t know if this is true, but if so it is an ingenious (albeit slimy) way to lure people back to the SAT.

Anyway, for now I am enjoying all of the ACT tutoring I am doing and have discovered a new found love for the test. I will never love it as much as I loved the old SAT, and ACT Inc. just does not really have their act together the way the producer of such an important test should (in my opinion, for example, they don’t vet their questions adequately and there are things that happen on the ACT that are unfair and that would never have happened on the old SAT). But for now I have embraced the ACT and have come to appreciate it in ways that I never anticipated. Goodbye SAT, hello ACT!